Needle selecting devices



Nov. 8, 1966 N. LEVIN 3,283,540

NEEDLE SELECTING DEVICES Filed March 14, 1963 5 Sheets-Sheet 1 IN VENTOR.

Maw/W Lww Nov. 8, 1966 N. LEVIN 3,283,540

NEEDLE SELECTING DEVICES Filed March 14, 1963 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 8 I] 74 @7-] 62 6 70 m 73 1 i 64 72 Fig.5. Fig.7.

IN VENTOR.

mam, Law'w Nov. 8, 1966 N. LEVIN NEEDLE SELECTING DEVICES 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 Filed March 14, 1963 U- UL INVENTOR.

United States Patent 3,283,540 NEEDLE SELEQTING DEVICES Nathan Levin, 722 Edgewood Ave., Trenton, NJ. Filed Mar. 14, 1963, Ser. No. 265,224 8 Claims. (Cl. 66-36) The present invention relates generally to the art of knitting and more particularly to needle selecting devices to provide for three position selection of latch needles in circular knitting machinery.

It is a primary object of the present invention to provide needle selecting devices capable of three position needle selection for each feed of a circular knitting machine which is particularly suited for multi-feed circular knitting machines wherein the space per feed is restricted in providing the maximum number of feeds for a given diameter of machine.

It is another object of the present invention to provide needle selecting devices capable of three position needle selection wherein the needles may be individually selected and wherein the three positions of the needles is made in connection with a single raise cam.

The invention, as well as the above and other objects thereof, will be readily apparent from the following description of preferred forms thereof shown in the accompanying drawings, and from the appended claims.

FIG. 1 is a sectional view through the needle cylinder of a multi-feed sinker top knitting machine at one feed thereof showing the spring tail needles, a pair of cams adapted to raise the needles and a pair of horizontal wheels to select the needles to be raised.

FIG. 2 is a view of an arrangement of the general type of needle selection shown in FIG. 1 except that the horizontal wheels do not act directly upon the needles but act upon sub-jacks individually associated with the needles.

FIG. 3 is a needle selecting arrangement of a stack or plurality of cams acting upon the needles via sub-jacks in such manner that a single needle raising cam may act to raise the needles from welt to tuck level or from welt to latch clearing level.

FIG. 4 is a schematic plan view of certain of the subjack acting cams of FIG. 3 at three feeds of the machine, showing a blank cam which permits the needles to rise to latch clearing level, a cam which keeps the needles at welt level, and a cam which permits the needles to rise to tuck level.

FIG. 5 is a schematic view, from inside the needle cylinder, showing the action of the sub-jack acting cams in relation to the needle raising cam.

FIG. 6 is a side elevational view of an arrangement whereby a stack of sub-jack acting cams may be moved toward and away from the needle cylinder.

FIG. 7 is a rear elevational view of the arrangement of FIG. 6.

FIG. 8 is a sectional view of the arrangement of FIG. 6 showing the forward and the rear positions of the stack of cams and the latching and unlatching means associated therewith.

FIG. 9 is a view of a modification of the needle selecting apparatus whereby the capacity thereof may be doubled by providing upper and lower sub-jacks, relative to the needle raising cam, and wherein the stack of cams associated with each of the sub-jacks may be moved toward and away from the needle cylinder.

FIG. 10 is a sectional view of a portion of FIG. 9 taken on line 10-40 thereof.

FIG. 11 is a schematic showing of a pair of co-planar positioned selecting cams which may be individually moved toward and away from the needle cylinder.

In FIG. 1, the spring tail latch needles 10, in slots 11 of the needle cylinder 12, are substantially the same as shown in US. Patent No. 2,024,530, and are adapted to 3,2835% Patented Nov. 8, 19%6 act generally in the same way, that is, the self-springing lower ends 13 thereof are selectively flexed radially of the deeper cut cylinder slots to move their butts 14 out of operating relation to the needle raising cam.

In the present improvement, a two step needle raise cam 15, movable relative to the needle cylinder, is provided and is so constructed that its upper outer cam face or step 16 is adapted to raise the needles to latch clearing level while its inner lower cam. face or step 17 is adapted to raise the needles to tuck level. Should neither step 16 or 17 act upon butt 14 (the latter being flexed inwardly of the needle slot), the needles will remain at welt level.

A pair of stacked horizontal wheels is provided to selectively flex the tails 13 inwardly, the lower wheel 18 being of larger diameter than the upper wheel 19. The wheels themselves are provided with frangible butts, as explained in said patent, whereby individual ones of the needle tails may or may not be selectively flexed. A horizontal needle driven gear wheel 20 is provided to which the horizontal design wheels 18 and 19 are suitably secured, the wheel 20 rotating about any suitable bearing 21 supported by the horizontal arm 22 which in turn may be adjustably disposed in and held by the vertical support 23 secured to the bed plate of the machine.

The action of the larger wheel 18 is to flex selected tails 13 to move butts 14 out of range of action of both steps of the cam 15 so that the corresponding needles remain at Welt level, and to permit selected tails to remain unflexed so that the corresponding needles will be raised to latch clearing level by step 16 of cam 15. The action of the smaller wheel 19 is to flex selected tails 13 to move butts 14 out of range of action of step 16 of the cam 15 into the range of action of step 17 so that the cor-responding needles will be raised to tuck level by the step 17, and to permit selected tails to remain unflexed so that the corresponding needles will be raised to latch clearing level by step 16 of cam 15. It is within the scope of the present invention to provide a single wheel, instead of the pair of wheels 18 and 19, having frangible butts of two lengths so that the longer butts perform the functions of the larger wheel while the shorter butts perform the functions of the smaller wheel. The needle cylinder slots are provided with a plurality of horizontal grooves 24 within which the gear and the wheels, at each feed, are adapted to make appropriate contact with the needle tails or shanks. It will be understood that the selecting wheels and gear may be placed at different levels at different feeds so as not to interfere with each other at adjacent feeds. At each of the levels, the wheels and gear are adjusted radially in proper relation to the raise cam 15. If desired, the needles 10 may be provided with short and long upper butts 25 and 26 so that an appropriately disposed thin cam acting only on the longer butts 26 may act to raise only the needles associated therewith, as may be desirable for the knitting of certain types of fabric wherein alternate ones of the needles are desired to be raised to tuck level. Such needle raising may act in conjunction with the needle selection provided by the horizontal design wheels.

While the design wheels in FIG. 1 act directly upon the vertically movable needle tails, they may also be arranged so as to act (at different levels at different feeds) upon projecting butts of sub-jacks, as in FIG. 2, the latter being individually associated with the needles. The subjacks are shown at 27 and are adapted to pivot about the garter spring 28 set in an appropriate horizontal groove around the needle cylinder. Each sub-jack may have one or more butts 29 projecting outwardly therefrom to be acted upon by the design wheels. The butts 29 may be at a single level for a certain group of needles and at other levels for other groups of needles so that only the horizontal wheel at the appropriate level will act upon the sub-jack butts of each of the needle groups.

In this way the net effect of a larger diameter design wheel may be achieved without the use of such larger diameter wheel (which may be inappropriate for multifeed machines) by the substitution therefor of a plurality of smaller diameter design wheels. To further explain, wheel 30 may act upon a group of needles having their sub-jack butts 29 at the level of wheel 30, when wheel 31 will take over and act upon the adjacent group of needles having their sub-jack butts at the level of wheel 31, then wheel 32 will take over and act upon the next adjacent'group of needles having their sub-jack butts at the level of wheel 32. In this way the effective design capacity is greatly increased by increasing the number of relatively small design wheels without greatly increasing the diameter of a single design wheel. As in FIG. 1, the wheels 30, 31 and 32 may be secured to a drive gear 33 and all may be rotatably supported by the arm 34.

In FIG. 2, the sub-jacks control the radial movements of the needle tails 35 into and out of operative relation to single or double raise cams as explained in connection with FIG. 1. It should be noted that while the member 35 may be an integral part of the needles, the invention is not so limited and there may be separate jacks operatively associated with the needles to raise the same and to be lowered thereby, as in the separate jack and needle arrangements shown in the US. Patent No. 1,722,989 and in the US. Patent No. 3,004,413.

In FIG. 3, an alternative arrangement is provided wherein the needle tails 36 (or separate jacks) may be flexed inwardly of slots 37 of cylinder 38 in relation to the single step and single face raise cam 39 to cause the butts 40 to miss the raise cam whereby the corre sponding needles will remain at welt level. Should tails 36 remain unflexed, then the butts 40 thereof will be engaged by raise cam 39 and moved so that the corresponding needles will be raised from welt to latch clearing levels. Furthermore, of those needles which are being raised by cam 39, should certain ones thereof have their tails flexed inwardly when the needles corresponding thereto are at tuck level, then their butts 40 will be moved off of cam 39 at such intermediate level and the needles associated therewith will not be fully raised to latch olearing level and will continue on at tuck level.

For the purpose of flexing tails 36, pivoted sub-jacks 41 are individually related thereto Within the needle slots. The sub-jacks are pivoted on garter spring 43 and are provided with butts, of which butt 42 is an example, at

.a plurality of levels equal to and at the respective levels of each cam of the stack of selecting cams 44. The butts 42, preferably with but one on each of the subjacks, may be arranged in single step or in a V-shaped arrangement. While only eight cams (and eight butt levels) are shown in the stack of cams 44, it will be understood that the invention is not so limited and that the number of cam and butt levels may be greatly increased to thus increase the pattern capacity of the machine.

The cams in stack 44 are of three basic types as shown in plan in FIG. 4 where 45 indicates a blank cam which will not act upon butts 42 and will permit needles to be fully rised by cam 39, where 46 indicates a full cam which will act upon butts 42 sufficiently early to cause butts 40 to miss cam 39 to permit needles to remain at Welt level and where 47 indicates a half cam which will act upon butts 42 sufficiently later to cause butts 40 to be pushed off of cam 39 at the proper time to permit needles to remain at tuck level. The cams 45, 46 and 47, of which a number thereof are selectively hand-arranged to form each stack 44 according to pattern, have spaced lateral cut-outs, FIG. 4, formed therein to fit suitably shaped portions of a housing therefor. The action, at each feed, may be explained in connection with PEG. wherein at A, due to the flexing action of a selecting cam 46, whose camming faces 49 and 50 (having acted upon an appro= 7 44, in FIG. 3, is related to the subjacks 41.

priate butt 42 and moved the sub-jack inwardly) causes needle 48 to miss cam 39 and to pass thereby at welt level 51. As shown at B, the level 52 is the latch clearing level to which those needles having non-flexed tails are being raised by cam 39. When the needles 55 reach tuck level 56, the camming faces 53 and 54 of a selecting cam 47 act to flex their tails 36 and thus move butts 40 off of cam 39 so that the needles 55 thereafter pass by at said tuck level 56. In this manner, the delayed action of half cams 47 serves to selectively cause needles to be raised to tuck level by the same cam 39 which also serves to raise other needles to latch clearing level.

An arrangement is shown in FIGS. 6, 7 and 8 whereby a stack of selecting cams may be latched into operative position and which may be unlatched to move radially outwardly to inactive position. In FIG. 6, the stack of cams is shown at 57, and these, in the position shown in FIG. 6 and in the full line position of FIG. 8, are related to the sub-jacks in the manner in which the stack of cams The inward or operative position of the forward ends of the stack of cams 57 is indicated in FIG. 8 at 58 while their outward or inoperative position is indicated at 59. The stack of cams is disposed in a housing 68 having the extended base 61 the bottom of which has a tongue construction 62 which slides in the groove arrangement 63 of support 64. The housing, FIG. 6, has a removeable side plate (held in place by the four screws shown) to permit the insertion therein of the stack of cams 57. A raise cam 65 is located on the inner face of support 64. A compression spring 66 located Within a suitable aperture in base 61 and taking against stop 67 will urge the base 61 and the stack of cams rearwardly. A pin 68 extending upwardly from base 61 may be used to move the latter inwardly. The support 64 is provided with a latch 69 pivoted at 78 within a slot 71 and is urged upwardly by spring 72 arranged in a suitable aperture. Latch 69 has a tail 73 provided with notches 74 and '75. When base 61 is moved inwardly, notch 75 of latch 69 engages the rear end of base 61, as in FIG. 8, to hold the stack of cams 57 in their forward position. Should the tail 73 of latch 69 be depressed, then spring 66 will move the stack of cams 57 rearwardly until base 61 engages notch 74 of the latch, as shown in dotted lines in FIG. 8, so that the cams 57 are out of operative position. When the cams 57 are inoperative, all of the needles will be raised by cam 65 to latch clearing level. It is within the scope of the present invention to have the latch 68 actuated and the pin 68 moved by pattern controlled means.

Another modification is shown in FIGS. 9 and 10, wherein the needle selecting capacity of each feed of the machine may be substantially doubled by the provision of pairs of sub-jacks co-acting with each needle tail or jack, which in turn is raised by a single raise cam. Needle tails are indicated at 76 having butts 77 and depending shank ends 78 below the butts 77. The needles and their tails (or jacks) are individually placed in slots 79 of the cylinder 80 in such manner that the butts 77 are normally spring flexed to extend outwardly of the cylinder and into the path of the relatively movable raise cam 81, there being a cam 81 at each feed of the machine. A series of upper sub-jacks 82 are individually associated with the tails 76, after the manner of the sub-jacks 41 of FIG. 3, and are under the selective control of an upper stack of cams indicated by dotted lines at 83 in the manner described in connection with FIG. 3.

A second series of sub-jacks 84, termed the lower subjacks, are individually associated with the shanks 78 of the needle tails to move the latter radially inwardly of the machine to move their butts 77 out of operative relation to raise cam 81 for the purposes heretofore explained. The lower sub-jacks 84 are located in needle slots 79 and are retained in place by a pair of spring bands 85 set in circumferentially extending grooves cut in the needle cyli l ri The arrangement is such that sub-jacks 84 are normally spring held in their positions of FIG. 9 but may be pivotally moved inwardly by the selective action of a lower stack of cams 86, also indicated by dotted lines, on butts 87 of a series of butts, to provide the desired selective action on shank ends 78, after which the subjacks return to their normal positions. The lower subjacks 84 are provided with the upper prongs 88 which overlie the shank ends 78 so that when the lower subjacks 84 are moved inwardly by the lower stack of cams 86, the butts 77 will be accordingly moved inwardly to vary their relation to raise cam 81.

As shown in FIGS. 9 and 10, it is possible to have either one of the stacks of cams 83 and 86 in operative relation or in inoperative relation to their respective sub-jacks, irrespective of each other. The upper cams 83 are shown in operative position while the lower cams 86 are shown in their inoperative position. Thus it is possible to have separate patterns on each group of sub-jacks and stack of cams, or a single pattern may be set up on both sets of sub-jacks and stacks of cams.

To permit this individual control, each stack of cams is set in a magazine or container 89 provided with a cover plate 90. The container base 91 has a tongue 92 and groove 93 in sliding connection with support 94. The upper support 94 has raise cam 81 fixed to its inner face. Extending upwardly from upper support 94 is an ear 95 through which adjusting stud 96 passes freely therethrough for threaded engagement with base 91 by means of which the stack of cams 83 may be moved toward and away from the needle cylinder. A locking stud 97, threadedly passing through ear 95 and taking against the rear face of base 91, acts to hold the parts in adjusted position.

The upper support 94 is supported and positioned by the L-shaped member 98, 99 which is supported on the bed plate of the machine. By means of the screws 100 and 101, which are disposed in relation to the lower container 89 and upright 98, in a manner similar to the disposition of screws 96 and 97 in relation to the upper container 89 and ear 95, the lower stack of cams 86 may also be adjustably moved toward and away from the needle cylinder and locked in such adjusted positions.

In FIG. 11 a schematic arrangement is shown of a side by side pair of cams 102 and 103 in full line and in dotted line positions. With cam 102 in forward full line position and with cam 103 in rear full line position, the ends 104 and 105 of cam 102 may function as do the cam ends 53 and 54 of cam 47 of FIG. 4 to provide the tuck level selection for the needles. With cam 103 in forward dotted line position and with earn 102 in full line forward or in rear dotted line positions, the ends 106 and 107 of cam 103 may function as do the cam ends 49 and 50 of cam 46 of FIG. 4 to provide the welt level selection for the needles. With cam 102 in rear dotted line position and with cam 103 in rear full line position, the cams 102 and 103 will function as does the cam 45 of FIG. 4 to provide the latch clearing level selection for the needles.

What is claimed is:

1. In a needle selecting device for a circular knitting machine having a slotted needle cylinder, radially movable needle raising jacks in said slots, said jacks having butts thereon, cam raising means movable relative to said cylinder and adapted to raise said jacks, sub-jacks in said needle slots individually related to said jacks and adapted to impart radially inward movements to the latter, said sub-jacks being disposed at a level below that of said jack butts, and means providing an individual selection of said sub-jacks to impart radially inward movements to the jacks associated therewith.

2. In a needle selecting device for a circular knitting machine having a slotted needle cylinder, radially movable needle raising jacks in said slots, said jacks having butts thereon, cam raising means movable relative to said cylinder and adapted to .raise said jacks, upper sub-jacks and lower sub-jacks in said needle slots individually related to said jacks and adapted to impart radial movements to the latter, said upper sub-jacks being disposed at a level above that of said jack butts, said lower sub-jacks being disposed at a level below that of said jack butts, and means providing an individual selection of said sub-jacks to impart radial movements to the jacks associated therewith.

3. In a needle selecting device for a circular knitting machine having a slotted needle cylinder and vertically movable needles therein, needle raising members in said slots and selectively movable radially thereof from an outer normal position to a first intermediate and to a second fully inward position, said members having raise butts thereon, circumferentially extending cam raise means movable relative to said cylinder and acting on a common edge of said raise butts to raise members in said first intermediate position to a first lower level and to raise members in said outer normal position to a second higher level above and from a common level while permitting members in said second fully inward position to remain at said common level, and selecting means movable relative to said cylinder to move a first selection of said members to said first intermediate position and to move a second selection thereof to said second fully inward position while permitting other members to remain in said outer normal position, the said selections being made at the same place relative to said cam raise means, said cam raise means retaining said selected members in said first intermediate and second fully inward positions while members in said first intermediate and in said outer normal positions are being raised thereby.

4. In a needle selecting device as in claim 3 wherein said cam raise means has an inner and an outer raising surface of which the former raises members in said first intermediate position to said lower level while the latter raises members in said outer normal position to said higher level.

5. In a needle selecting device as in claim 3 wherein said selecting means is a substantially horizontally disposed rotatable circular design wheel.

6. In a needle selecting device as in claim 3 wherein said selecting means is a pair of substantially horizontally disposed rotatable circular design wheels of differential diameters.

7. In a needle selecting device as in claim 3 wherein each of said members is an integral spring tail extension of one of said needles.

8. In a needle selecting device as in claim 3 wherein each of said members comprises a jack and a sub-jack to impart radial movement thereto.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,546,693 7/ 1925 Walter 6650 1,722,989 8/ 1929 Ames 6636 2,024,530 12/1935 Levin 6636 2,127,224 8/1938 Lombardi 6650 2,140,078 12/ 1938 Horrocks et al 6650 2,164,118 6/1939 McAdams 66135 2,913,887 11/1959 Ducharme 6650 3,004,413 10/ 1961 Felker 6650 3,097,510 7/1963 Brown 6649 X 3,145,548 8/ 1964 Mishcon 6650 FOREIGN PATENTS 12,462 1912 Great Britain.

303,507 =1/ 1930 Great Britain.

366,325 2/1932 Great Britain.

465,358 5/1937 Great Britain.

575,702 3/ 1946 Great Britain.

MERVIN STEIN, Primary Examiner.

W. CARTER REYNOLDS, Examiner. 

3. IN A NEEDLE SELECTING DEVICE FOR A CIRCULAR KNITTING MACHINE HAVING A SLOTTED NEEDLE CYLINDER AND VERTICALLY MOVABLE NEEDLES THEREIN, NEEDLE RAISING MEMBERS IN SAID SLOTS AND SELECTIVELY MOVABLE RADIALLY THEREOF FROM AN OUTER NORMAL POSITION TO A FIRST INTERMEDAITE AND TO A SECOND FULLY INWARD POSITION, SAID MEMBER HAVING RAISE BUTTS THEREON, CIRCUMFERENTIALLY EXTENDING CAM RAISE MEANS MOVABLE RELATIVE TO SAID CYLINDER AND ACTING ON A COMMON EDGE OF SAID RAISE BUTTS TO RAISE MEMBERS IN SAID FIRST INTERMEDIATE POSITION TO A FIRST LOWER LEVEL AND TO RAISE MEMBERS IN SAID OUTER NORMAL POSITION TO A SECOND HIGHER LEVEL ABOVE FROM SAID COMMON LEVEL WHILE PERMITTING MEMBERS IN SAID SECOND FULLY INWARD POSITION TO REMAIN AT SAID COMMON LEVEL, AND SELECTING MEANS MOVABLE RELATIVE TO SAID CYLINDER TO MOVE A FIRST SELECTION OF SAID MEMBERS TO SAID FIRST INTERMEDITE POSITION AND TO MOVE A SECOND SELECTION THEREOF TO SAID SECOND FULLY INWARDLY POSITION WHILE PERMITTING OTHER MEMBERS TO REMAIN IN SAID OUTER NORMAL POSITION, THE SAID SELECTIONS BEING MADE AT THE SAME PLACE RELATIVE TO SAID CAM RAISE MEANS, SAID CAM RAISE MEANS RETAINING SAID SELECTED MEMBERS IN SAID FIRST INTERMEDIATE AND SECOND FULLY INWARD POSITIONS WHILE MEMBERS IN SAID FIRST INTERMEDIATE AND IN SAID OUTER NORMAL POSITIONS ARE BEING RAISED THEREBY. 